[MUD-Dev] Striving for originality

[Rayzam]

From: <caduvall at glue.umd.edu>
> Matt Mihaly <the_logos at achaea.com> wrote:

>> To me, saying that something like magic, which doesn't exist in
>> the physical world, should have properties Z and effects A, B,
>> and C screams box-thinking. Surely magic can be whatever a
>> designer designs it to be.

> So far as I have kicked things around, if you use names with which
> people attach certain expectations to mean something entirely
> different, most of what you'll end up getting is grief and
> frustration on the part of the player. If you have something in
> your world which grows out of the ground, has petals, needs to be
> watered semi-reguarly, etc, then it is a daisy, not a raygun.

> I'm running into this in the game I'm helping to admin currently -
> people reguarly bother the imms to tell them that vampires
> "should" or "should not" have certain
> properties/skills/whatever. Likewise for swordsmen, tailors. While
> some of the ideas they suggest have merit, many are just intended
> to make the 'name' react more closely to their preconceived
> expectations.

> Admittedly, someone telling me that a raygun should or should not
> have certain properties doesn't change _my_ view unless they've
> got some rationale to back up what they say. But it does create a
> constant undertone of 'This isn't what we know'.

This is something I bet many of us have dealt with. There are always
2 tacks to take: thematic or balance.

Here's an example: I had players telling me that the unicorn race
was all wrong. Unicorns are magical. Unicorns from this book could
teleport.  From that myth could heal. From this, they never
tired. Unicorns are horses.  Horses are big. Horses are strong. Etc.

They wanted all the various magical abilities ever given to any
unicorn in fiction. And they wanted all the positive traits of every
breed of horse [the endurance of a Clydesdale came up, as did the
agility of the Spanish horses].

  Thematic: unicorn is it's own breed. Look at all the different
  things named. If unicorns had the endurance of a clydesdale it
  would be a clomping treader. Or if it's as fleet as an Arabian, it
  can't carry as much. Choose 1 breed, or choose 1 myth of
  unicorns. You can't have it all. Thematically we see unicorns in
  the sense of a extremely agile, charismatic, wise creatures.  They
  aren't large, overbearing, strong, or physical fighters.
  
  Balance: You can't have it all. Everything needs a balance in
  terms of plusses and minuses. For everything suggested, that makes
  it all positives.  If you have a request, come back with a list of
  negatives for all those myths and horse breeds too. Want a
  stronger horse, then you won't be as agile.

Should or should not is very subjective. But there are ways to deal.
Don't take something that is very well set and turn it on it's
head. It may be innovative, but it's a bit grating for those
playing. An example would be having a race called unicorn that was a
walking cornstalk with only 1 ear on it. Or make an elf be a large
piglike regenerating stupid creature [what I'd call a troll, no
offense to those trolling the list ;) ].

The other way to deal is to be consistent and be immersive. When
someone enters your gaming world, they shouldn't be thinking 'this
isn't the way it should be'. They should be immersed and enthralled
by your world, wanting to learn what it *is*.

    rayzam
    www.travellingbard.com



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